Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada

The project was rejected twice before being finally approved in 1783 by King Charles III of Spain, and was headed by José Celestino Mutis, a Spanish priest, who was also a botanist, mathematician and teacher.

However, years later, after he retired to live in Mariquita, he met Archbishop and Viceroy Antonio Caballero y Góngora, who made a third proposal on his behalf that was finally accepted by the King, who named Mutis first botanist and astronomer of the botanical expedition.

On April 29, 1783 the expedition was formally launched with a team composed by botanists Eloy Valenzuela and Fray Diego García, geographers Bruno Landete and Jose Camblor, painters Pablo Antonio Garcia del Campo, Francisco Javier Matís, Anthony and Nicholas Cortez, Vicente Sánchez, Antonio Barrionuevo, Vicente Silva, his assistant Salvador Rizo Blanco, foreman Roque Gutierrez, several collectors and a messenger.

Among them was the one led by Francisco José de Caldas, who explored the present lands of Ecuador during four years, returning to Santa Fe in 1808 bringing a very extensive herbarium.

Another member, Fray Diego Garcia, explored the Upper Magdalena Valley, between La Palma and Timana, reaching the Andaquíes area and collecting many animal and geological samples.

In 1952 began the publication of the enormous work in its entirety, that is still not completed and is expected to need more than sixty volumes, with the added requirement of having to identify the plants under the drawings according to the current nomenclature and creating a meaningful descriptive text adapted to modern times.